Flames, coach Sutter part ways

CALGARY – The Calgary Flames are in the market for a new coach – again.

When the Flames resume action in the fall, they'll do so under their fifth coach in eight years. The Flames and Brent Sutter came to a mutual agreement to conclude coaching duties just one day after the start of the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

It was the third consecutive season under Sutter's tutelage that the Flames missed the postseason. Assistant coach Dave Lowry will also not be back next season.

"I think the world of Brent," general manager Jay Feaster said. "We talked about that. We are friends. It's one of the toughest things in this business. So often when things happen, and it's time to part ways … a lot of times that friendship is lost, at least for a while. We departed today on the same basis as we normally do. I appreciate that friendship. It's not an easy day.

"It isn't about blame or three years out. As we talked, we decided this is a time to go separate ways."

Sutter's contract was up for renewal after the Flames put together another 90-point season – their eighth in a row– but failed again to make the playoffs in the highly competitive Western Conference.

The Flames will immediately begin the process of compiling a list of candidates to replace Sutter and begin the interviewing process. No timetable has been set to name a new coach.

Feaster said the Flames would not rule out any candidate.

"We're not going to limit ourselves," he said. "It's not about saying it has to be somebody who has done this or that or it has to be someone who has experience at the NHL. We're going to sit down and go through a process."

"It's very important at this time we do not set any artificial limits on it. We're not going to say it must be this or it must be that."

One such candidate is Abbotsford Heat coach Troy Ward, who has steered Calgary's American Hockey League affiliate to a 40-26-3-5 record and into the playoffs in his first season behind the bench.

"He's done such a great job, and we've talked about that," Feaster said. "At the same time, we would like to see a nice, long playoff run in Abbotsford. We're asking him to keep his eye on the ball there."

Ward -- or any other hire for that matter -- wouldn't be subject to approval from the locker room either, Feaster explained.

He's only 17 but he can see the ice so well and he moves the puck and goes to the open ice all the time, so I just think he's a player that is ready to play in the NHL. I'm really looking forward to coaching someone like this.

— U.S. National Junior Team coach Ron Wilson on Auston Matthews, the projected No. 1 pick of the 2016 NHL Draft